A Tale of two men

December 15, 2007

Mr X hanged Mr Y on Oct 16 1799. Both men were roughly of the same age then, they had nothing in common and had never met before. In a sense, they were excellent specimens of the worlds they represented. Mr X went on to find success after success in his career and eventually became the governor of penang, Malaysia. He died of cholera in 1819 and was quietly forgotten. But memories of Mr Y lingered on as a minor folklore with a monument of stones rising at the place of his hanging. 160 years after he was hanged, Mr. Y became the subject of a film in 1959 and became a sensation. Now he is a legend and a symbol and nearly all Tamil children grow up hearing his story. Mr. X rots in a little known grave in George town, Penang.